They’re one of the most famous couples in history and a letters written by Elizabeth Taylor to Richard Burton during their tempestuous ten-year marriage has gone on sale.
The actress wrote the letter to mark the couple’s tenth marriage anniversary and it shows how she had desperately attempted to save her marriage to Burton, despite the pair getting divorced just a few months later.
The letter is dated 15 March 1974 and begins “My darling (my still) My husband”.
“I wish I could tell you of my love for you, of my fear, my delight, my pure animal pleasure of you – (with you) – my jealousy, my pride, my anger at you, at times,” she said.
“Most of all my love for you, and whatever love you can dole out to me – I wish I could write about it but I can’t. I can only ‘boil and bubble’ inside and hope you understand how I really feel. Anyway, I lust thee, Your (still) wife.”
She signed off the letter by saying: “P.S. O’Love, let us never take each other for granted again! P.P.S. How about that – 10 years!!”
The note was discovered in a home the couple rented in California while he was filming The Klansman and is being sold by Bristol-based dealers Paul Fraser Collectibles for £35,000.
“This is one steamy letter, from one of the steamiest marriages in history. But what makes this letter particularly remarkable is its timing. Taylor wrote it on their tenth wedding anniversary, just three months before she and Burton divorced – the intense mixture of love and anger that Taylor has for her philandering husband is palpable in these lines,” said Fraser.
“This is the only love letter between the two to have ever come up for sale. That makes this a very rare opportunity to own memorabilia from Hollywood’s most famous couple.”
